


The Cat That Came Back

by GalahadWilder



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Dupain-Cheng - Freeform, Adrien dies, F/F, F/M, Future AU, Multi, Post Hawkmoth, Post Reveal, Resurrected character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2020-11-26 02:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20922743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder
Summary: Five years ago, Chat Noir died in the final battle against Hawkmoth, and Marinette hasn't been able to sleep since. But today, that's changing—today, Adrien Agreste is coming home.





	1. In Living Memory

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [ghostin'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898830) by [chatalyst](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatalyst/pseuds/chatalyst). 

> I’ve been seeing a lot of “one of them dies and the other has to move on without them” fics for Miraculous lately and, while they're great, they always hurt too much. Figured I’d write the reverse.

The view from the Eiffel Tower is spectacular, watching the lights of Paris spread out beneath them, but something about it fills her with a sense of ineffable loss. Of longing. Of… hollowness.

He dances, laughing, taking her hand and swinging her out, and she feels her heart lift at the feel of leather beneath her fingers again. “I’m coming home!” he cries with delight. “My Lady, I’m coming home!”

Her brow crinkles. “Home?” she says. “Where have you been?”

He pulls her in, close to his chest. “I need you to do something for me, Marinette,” he says.

She’s confused. When did she tell him her name? “Anything,” she whispers.

His fingers squeeze hers. “I need you to wake up,” he says.

“What?” Ladybug says. “No, no, I—Adrien—”

His chest is torn open beneath her fingers, raw and bleeding as Hawkmoth stares down at them in shock. “No! Please!” Ladybug screams, trying to hold him together. “I can’t—I can’t lose you!”

“It’s okay, My Lady,” Chat says with a weak smile. “I’m coming home.”

“_Don’t leave me again!_” she screams, knowing it’s too late. Knowing he’s already gone.

* * *

“Ohime!”

She feels familiar, callused fingers brush into her hair. The ring—Adrien’s ring, Chat’s ring, presses into her back.

“Ohime, I’m here, I’m sorry.”

It’s not his hand. It’s not his ring. Not anymore.

Marinette collapses into Kagami’s chest and sobs.

“Shh, shh shh,” Kagami whispers. “I’m here, I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.”

_But you’re not **him**_, Marinette doesn’t say.

She’d never been agoraphobic before Gabriel Agreste went to prison. Now, everything is too large. She shakes in Kagami’s arms in a cavernous room that she once would’ve called tiny, in a bed that’s far too large without him in it. She moved in with Kagami almost a year ago and she still can’t let him go.

She feels the feather-weight of Tikki settle in her hair, the warm pulse of healing magic press onto her scalp, filter through her thoughts, calming her racing heart. “Oh, Marinette,” Tikki says. “Did you have the dream again?”

Marinette whimpers, nodding into Kagami’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” Kagami murmurs. Doesn’t say _we should’ve been there for you_, because leaving the rest of them out was _Marinette’s_ choice, she wanted to take Hawkmoth by surprise, and now Chat’s dead because of her. The first time Kagami said _I should’ve been there_ Marinette couldn’t bring herself to speak to her for a week.

There’s nothing Kagami can say. There’s nothing Kagami knows _how_ to say.

That’s better than what Luka tried, anyway.

“Where’s Plagg?” Marinette murmurs. He’s the only one who can burn the nightmares away, destroy the haunting memories that won’t leave her alone.

“One of his late-night walkabouts,” Tikki says, and Kagami nods. He’s never told them where he goes and they’ve never asked. Letting him mourn the way he needs.

Marinette twines her fingers into Kagami’s hair and pulls her down for a kiss. She needs to feel—she needs the reminder that somebody she loves is still alive.

_He said he was coming home._

Her dream’s never done that before.

* * *

She’s in-between meetings when her girlfriend calls her the next morning. She almost doesn’t want to answer.

“Marihime,” Kagami says, her voice full of concern, “something happened to the ring.”

A chill shoots up Marinette’s spine as she drops her pen, the pen Nino got her for her first day. “Are you okay?” she says. “Is—is _Plagg_ okay?”

“I’m fine,” Kagami says. “The ring—it just shot off my finger and flew out the window. Can it… does it _do_ that?” There’s still so little Marinette’s told her about the Guardian lore, so many things she can’t bear to tell her about. Things that remind her of him.

“…No,” Marinette says. “Not unless a Kwami is _carrying_ it.” She doesn’t know what happened. All the Miraculi are accounted for—if Plagg is doing something—

A text comes through on her computer screen. From Alya.

_Chat Noir has just been sighted at the Eiffel Tower_, it reads, and Marinette’s heart stops.

The next message restarts it.

_Not Kuro Neko,_ it says. _Chat Noir._

“Nekochan?” Marinette gasps. “I’m—I’ve gotta go. I’ll call you back.”

“Of course,” Kagami says. “Love you.”

Marinette doesn’t say it back, but then, Kagami doesn’t expect her to.

* * *

She’s running blind. Her limbs are on fire, and she’s pretty sure she breaks eight speed records in her blind dash from her office to the Tower. Barely sees the crowd gathered around the base. Too focused on the tiny black figure, halfway up the tower, right in their favorite spot.

She slams her feet into the I-Beam at what must be thirty miles an hour, faster than she’s ever moved before. “That ring isn’t yours!” she hisses, crouched, whipping her yo-yo in a circle as she prepares to _tear apart_ whoever _dared_ impersonate her—

Her eyes meet vivid emerald and the yo-yo slips from her fingers, slams into the beam behind her. “Chaton?” she whispers.

He’s staring at her too, like all the wind knocked out of him at the same time it did her. “You—you cut your hair,” he says. And oh, after five years, isn’t that just the _stupidest_ possible thing he could’ve said, isn’t that—

“You look exactly the same,” she says. Because, impossibly—minus the ravaged chest—he does.

He collapses, and so does she.

“Adrien,” she says, her voice cracking. “Cha—Chaton, you’ve… you’ve been dead for five years.”

“I know,” he whispers back, his head between his knees. “I… I remember. I remember dying.” He looks at her, tears streaming down his face. “How am I back? _How am I alive?_”

She shakes her head, closes her eyes.

“Mari,” he gasps, “_what did you do?_”

* * *

She gives herself five minutes to believe it. Five minutes where he’s back, where she gets to hold him, where she never lost him. Five minutes where the boy in her arms is the love of her life. Five minutes to cry.

Then Ladybug takes over.

“You can’t be him,” she says, wiping her eyes. “There’s—it’s impossible.”

“I’m not an Akuma,” he says, reaching for her hand. “Or… or an Amok.”

“I know,” Ladybug snaps, scooting away from him. “Nooroo is with my mother, and Duusu is still hibernating.”

Chat—or, whoever—blinks, his head jerking. He withdraws his hand.

“That doesn’t mean you’re not one of Enchantress’ illusions,” she says, not looking at him. “Or a boggart, or that shapeshifter from Amsterdam, or… or _something_.”

“I’m _me_,” he says, his claws digging into the iron with a screech. “I’m—Mari, Princess, please, it’s _me_.” He’s begging, desperate, and her heart is straining out of her chest. She wants to believe him so badly.

“Prove it,” she says. “Say something only he would know.”

He stares at her, glances down at her hand. “You… you don’t wear a ring,” he says.

She bristles, her eyes narrowing. “Why would I?” How—how _dare_ he, how dare this imposter…

He turns away. “My name wasn’t… Adrien Agreste, when I died,” he whispers. “We were—we were losing, and we were desperate, and…” He looks up at her, tears in his eyes. “Tikki officiated,” he says, clearly straining not to take her hand. “For the last ten minutes of my life, my name was Adrien Dupain-Cheng.”

All the sounds of Paris below burn away. Her temples squeeze inward, The ringing in her ears stabbing into her brain. She can’t breathe. She tries to inhale, but the air isn’t coming—her heart is about to explode out of her chest, pounding, pounding, _pounding_, because she never even told Kagami that, because only one human being ever knew, because it’s him, it’s him, it’s him, it’s him, it’s him—

* * *

Smelly Wolf. He’s humming Smelly Wolf.

She’s enveloped in Chat Noir’s arms, pressed against his chest, curled up in his lap. She feels the leather against her face, a different texture than when Kagami wears it, soft and strong and oh so familiar. His scent, leather and sweat and cologne that was discontinued when he was buried.

She sniffles, wiping her eyes.

“Back with me, Bug?” he says.

She closes her eyes. “How long was I out?”

“Two minutes,” he says, squeezing her shoulders with his arms. “I’m glad Smelly Wolf still works.”

Her tunnel widens, and she realizes she can hear the _whup-whup-whup_ of helicopter blades. “The news is here?”

Chat nods. “Just arrived.”

Ladybug sniffles, waits a second for her pulse to calm. “We need to get somewhere private,” she says. “I—follow me.”

She flings her yo-yo, and Chat flips out his baton, saluting to the crowd below.

Ladybug is nearly knocked off balance by the wave of screams of joy as Paris realizes that this is real—that her fallen hero has come home.


	2. Denial

Running alongside Chat Noir is like suddenly regrowing a missing limb, phantom pains transitioning into very real agony that’s still so very worth it, and easier than she could have even remembered. No matter how much they practiced, she could never get this kind of synchronization with Kuro Neko.

She’s burning, and she doesn’t even care. She feels light for the first time since his father’s sword struck his side, and she windmills to a halt on a random rooftop and laughs, loud and clear, tears streaming down her face. He’s alive. He’s alive, and he came home to her.

“My Lady?” he says, looking at her like she’s the moon, like she’s his whole universe, the way he did when they were young, and she wants to take him in her arms and never let him go again. “Is everything all right?”

“No,” she says, smiling. “But—but _Guardians_, Chat, I haven’t—I feel so…”

“GET AWAY FROM HER!”

Chat twists, his baton raised, barely in time to skitter Rena Rouge’s flute past his shoulder.

“_Rena!_” Ladybug screams as the fox flings a wild punch at Chat, who… tornado kicks over it?

He’s not rusty, she realizes as he moves around Rena’s fists and legs, far more fluidly than she even remembers. To him, the fight with Hawkmoth was less than an hour ago.

She slings her yo-yo outward, snatching Rena’s wrist. “Stop, dammit!”

”Ladybug!” Rena cries, and Ladybug can see her blinking away tears. “It’s not him, can’t you see that?” She twists, glaring at Chat, who is standing, twirling his baton in his fingers. “You _can’t_ be him.”

Chat sucks in a lip. “Alya,” he says, “it’s me.”

Rena stiffens. “Did you—” Her breath staggers as she turns to look at Ladybug. “Did you _tell him?_”

Ladybug shakes her head, quickly, desperately. “Rena, I swear—”

Chat surges forward, and for an instant Ladybug thinks she can see Chat Blanc’s killing intent behind his eyes—for an instant, as Chat’s claws burn through the air towards Rena Rouge, Ladybug thinks she’s trusted the wrong man; that he’s used her, that he’s taken her soul and her very heart and turned them against her, that Rena is about to die—

Chat’s claws never land on Rena, except on, poking her in the sternum. “Our first interview after I told you who I am,” Chat says, his voice low. Then, ever so slowly... he starts to grin. “You spent more time asking Adrien questions about Marinette than Chat questions about anything.”

“Wait, seriously?” Ladybug says, her eyelids fluttering in confusion. She glares at Rena Rouge. “Alya!”

Rena blinks. “I—I never told anyone that,” she says, looking at Ladybug. “I never told _you_ that.”

Ladybug and Rena Rouge stare at each other for a moment. A chill passes over Ladybug’s skin—five years of an endless, desolate lifetime spooled back, and Ladybug can see the disbelief in Rena’s eyes, the impossibility of the moment, the refusal to believe, to understand; all the hurt, all the pain, finally dragged to the surface after years of burying it, looking past it, pretending it wasn’t there, pretending it didn’t hurt.

And finally, Rena breaks.

”_Adrien_,” she gasps, sobs. She spins on her heel, the yo-yo wire whirring on her wrist as her fist cracks across his jaw.

Chat drops, stunned, betrayal written across his face.

“_HOW COULD YOU FUCKING **LEAVE** HER?!?_” Rena screams. Her foot slams into Chat’s sternum, lifting him bodily, pushing him a half meter along the rooftop. “_SHE **NEEDED** YOU!”_

The molasses burns away from Ladybug’s muscles in a sudden screaming of long-dormant instincts to _protect Chat_. She twists the wire in fingers, yanking back on Rena’s wrist, holding her back.

_“WE ALL NEEDED YOU!” _Rena shrieks, with strength born of desperation and rage, the top of her foot taking Chat up the chin. “_How the FUCK could you go and DIE?” _She’s sobbing. Ladybug is sobbing. Chat is crumpled, frozen, stunned.

“Rena!” Ladybug yells, rushing forward, trying to grab her friend’s arm, to pull her away from her husband. “Rena, stop!”

”Dammit, Bug!” Rena cries, trying to pull out of Ladybug’s arms. “He _left _you!”

Ladybug squeezes her arm into Rena’s windpipe. “He _saved_ me, Alya,” she breathes. “And he _came back._”

Before them, Chat wheezes, struggling to his knees. Elbows pressing against the roof. And suddenly, for a second, they’re not on this rooftop—they’re in the basement of the Agreste Mansion, and Chat Noir’s chest isn’t leather, it’s ribs and blood and intestines, barely held into his body by his shaking claws. And for a moment all Ladybug hears is screaming—his, hers, Mayura’s, and yet Hawkmoth isn’t screaming, he’s grimly silent as he stands in front of his wife and beats his son to death. And then green light zips up Chat’s body, and the mask falls—and then, only then, does Hawkmoth start to scream.

”Marinette?” Rena’s voice reaches her ears, somewhere far away.

”My Lady?” That’s—that’s Chat. That’s her Chat. That’s _her Chat._

”F—fine,” she mutters, shaking her head, her eyes closed. shaking the spots from her brain. “I’m fine.”

He came back. She’s not asleep, she’s not dreaming, he’s real, he’s here, he’s _home_.

She doesn’t make it to the ground. She sees him reach for her, but it’s Rena’s arms that hold her, that keep her from the roof, ”Alya, _he came back to me,_” she whispers, slumping.

”I know, sweetie, I know.”

Ladybug’s eyes flutter closed.

_”Rena?” _Chat says, just on the edge of her consciousness._ “What the hell just happened?”_

_“Flashback,”_ Rena says, laying Ladybug down, gently. “_She’s been having them since you—well, since you.” _She sighs. ”_We need to take her home._”

”_I’ve got this,_” Chat says, stepping toward her.

A sound of leather striking leather. “_No. She needs—“_

Ladybug shakes her head. “I need my Kitty,” she mumbles, with as much force as she can muster.

There’s a pause. “_Well, shit,_” Rena says. “_Guess she’s all yours._”

”_Where does she live?”_ She feels the familiar leather of Chat’s arms, cradling her, like he did ten minutes ago, like he did all those years ago when they were younger and in love and invincible.

“_Oh. Well crap,”_ Rena says. “_Uh... we need to figure out what we’re going to tell her girlfriend._”

**Author's Note:**

> [Find me on Tumblr.](http://www.galahadwilder.tumblr.com)


End file.
